There aren’t many people in the world who have ever heard of the name David Shepard Smith Jr. That is because most people who have heard of him will only know him by the name, Shepard Smith. This well known name belongs to one of Fox News Channel’s most recognizable anchors. One that is especially known for his liberal use of profanity laced rants. He is also known for being the managing editor of Fox News’ Breaking News Division. Altogether, his work at the cable news channel is rumored to earn him an impressive $10 million per year income, and his net worth is estimated to be somewhere around the $20 million mark.

Humble Beginnings and Fast Rise

Shepard’s career began at a local stations around Florida in markets such as Gainesville and Miami. He subsequently moved to LA to become a correspondent for the nationally syndicated television news program, A Current Affair. After A Current Affair ended production in 1996, Shepard was picked up by the Fox News channel. Since then, his career has spanned across multiple programs at Fox News including hosting the Fox Report and his own program called Shepard Smith Reporting. Over time he has covered major news events including the funeral of Princess Diana, the Florida ballot counting controversy during the 2000 election, and the execution of domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh. In a 2003 poll conducted by TV Guide, he tied for the position of second most trusted TV news anchor with the likes of network giants like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather.

Personal Life and Controversy

In 1987, Smith married Virginia Donald, who was a fellow classmate from his time at the University of Mississippi. However, the marriage did not produce any children and ended in divorce after only six short years in 1993. Quite a heavy shroud of mystery and uncertainty loomed over the reasons behind Smith’s separation from his wife, mostly because any shred of credible information regarding the issue ended up buried beneath the avalanche of gossip and speculation revolving around his sexual orientation.

Many people in the media speculated that the reason for Smith’s divorce was the fact that, despite being married to a woman, he was actually a closet homosexual. A development surfaced in support of this explanation and alleged that Smith was at the time seeing a secret boyfriend or at least that was what the digital gossip block, Gawker claimed and spread.

According to Gawker, Smith had been dating Giovanni Graziano, better known by the nickname Gio, a graduate of Penn State and a former producer at Fox Business. The relationship was kept from the higher-ups at Fox since Smith’s bosses were not exactly known for their gay-friendly attitudes. Fox has a very conservative audience and they would do anything to prevent news of one of their top anchors being gay from getting out to the public.

People in support of gay relationships said that regardless of whether or not the rumors of the relationship were credible, judging from the photos floated about the internet, Gio was cutie and, if Smith was indeed dating him, then he was definitely a lucky man.